"Jews that support multiculturalism today are as much of a threat to Israel and Zionism as they are to us. So let us fight together with_ Israel, with our Zionist brothers against all anti-Zionists, against all cultural Marxists/multiculturalists."

Anders Behring Breivik was responsible and arrested on Utøya for the shootings and was linked_ to the Oslo bombings.

msnbc.msn. com/id/43857267/ns/world_news-­europe/

"This disgusting propoganda is from a crazy person! I'm sure the Muslims and other anti Zionists will use this kind of outrageous talk from a crazy person to encourage other terrorists who hate Israel and Jews to believe they are conspirators with a racist madman."

Good grief, river, that guy's manifesto is over 1500 pages long and he probably said just about everything anybody can think of and a lot they can't, plus he uses quotes from like 500 different people all the way from Stalin to Mark Twain, apparently -

anyway -

so what? People who already think like that already think like that, and people who don't aren't that likely to read it, and even if they do, why should they latch onto some one thing out of all that mess and say 'ooh, I never knew that' .

Don't stress yourself over it. He's nuts. He's the unibomber. You think he's going to be so wonderfully persuasive? no.

I'm not familiar in the least with any of his manifesto garbage, but you're right Pam. I was also mortified and angry to see such talk attached to a Keith Olbermann photograph, a former liberal MSNBC Countdown host for many years, and now on Current TV. being shown on You Tube as if he supported the writings. NOT! He is already hated by the far right.

When I told my husband about it, he told me that Glenn Beck (recently fired by Fox TV) reported that the Labour party youth camp on the island, where 68 people (mostly children) were murdered, bore "disturbing" similarities to the Nazi party's notorious juvenile wing. Beck, a multimillionaire darling of the Tea Party movement, said this on his nationally-syndicated radio show: His comments are all over the internet. Here's a few.

As one who is of Scandinavian heritage (Swedish) and who remains close to my ethnic ties, let me just mention that these countries, well noted for their tolerance, nevertheless have long had a small but active minority of right-wing wackos that strongly tend to be very nativistic, and this is not just a recent phenominon. During the NAZI occupation, for example, there was a significant number of NAZI sympathizers who were more than willing to help the Germans, although they were very much in the minority.

The murder that took place last weekend will have the effect of actually hurting the cause of the murderer since the vast majority of Norwegians simply will not tolerate that, and I can pretty much guarantee you that there will be a crackdown on automatic and semi-automatic guns as well as a closer scrutiny of anyone buying ingredients to make explosives. Here in the States, when something like this happens, many people tend to rush to gun shops to purchase weapons, but the Scandinavians in general tend to take the opposite approach.

Yes, there is some anti-Semitism to be found in these countries, but only by a small minority, however there is a much stronger anti-Zionist attitude there. There's a strong attitude that Israeli leaders really don't want peace, and Natenyahu and the Likud are not well liked.

As Norway’s Jews mourn, concern about muting of pro-Israel voices

. . .Yet even as they mourn along with their fellow countrymen, some Jews here are quietly expressing concern that the attack by a right-wing xenophobe who apparently sympathized with Israel may further mute pro-Israel voices in Norway, where anti-Zionist sentiment already runs strong. . . .

. . . If the Norwegian public is looking for a larger villain than Breivik, Jews here are worried that Zionism and pro-Israel organizations may be singled out.

"Can the average Norwegian accept that this is the one random act of one confused ethnic Norwegian?" Ring asked. "What I'm worried about is that in the Norwegian mind it will slowly attach an antagonism to Israel."

Joakim Plavnik, a young Norwegian Jew who works in the financial sector, said he's already worried by news reports that have focused on the seemingly pro-Zionist parts of Breivik's writings.

. . . Rachel Suissa runs the Center Against Antisemitism, a pro-Israel group that counts about 23,000 supporters and 10,000 subscribers to a quarterly journal. She said the Norwegian government's general pro-Palestinian stance -- Norway’s foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Store, recently said that Oslo soon would announce its support for an independent Palestinian state -- makes Zionism difficult to promote here.

"Anyone who dares support Israel is demonized," said Suissa, a professor of medical chemistry. "The Jews need to know that they have a lot of friends in Norway, but the Norwegian politicians are not our friends." . . .

. . . Norway, like practically every country in Europe, has a spotty history when it comes to the Jews.

Jews were first allowed into Norway after the Inquisition, but were banned from 1687 to 1851. The first synagogue in Oslo was established in 1892. Some 800 Jews were killed during the Nazi occupation of the country, and many who fled to seek asylum in Sweden did not return after the war.

Today, most of the country’s Jews live in Oslo, though smaller congregations do exist in other cities, like Trondheim, a seven-hour drive north. . . .

Rabbi Shaul Wilhelm, who runs the 7-year-old Chabad-Lubavitch center in Oslo, said the way to prove Breivik and his ideology wrong is to embrace tolerance.

"What we should try to learn from all this is that multiculturalism isn't just a thesis and a concept," he said. "That would be the greatest revenge against this murderer and against people of his ilk: that we can actually practice tolerance in a very real way."

Why is everybody in Europe against Israel? Have they forgotten what Hitler did to the Jews? I thought the Scandianvians were more liberal. I guess I was wrong.

Once there was a discussion on this forum about traveling in Europe and stopping in Germany. I said I would never go to Germany, and I was criticized for writing it. I haven't changed. Few countries with the exceptions of Denmark and Sweden cared one wit what happened to the Jews before and during WWII, and the Jews have been persecuted and tortured in Europe for hundreds of years. Though the Europeans resent the Muslims living in their countries, they blame Israel for the same thing, even though over a million Muslims live in Israel and they are surrounded by tens of millions of Arab Muslims (or Persians) who want nothing better than to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Anyway, I don't ever plan to go to Europe. I'm perfectly content and grateful that I live in the US of A, even though I realize there is some Antisemitism in this country as well, so I stay out of areas where it is prevalent.

“Faith is deciding to allow yourself to believe something your intellect would otherwise cause you to reject.”

...I would disagree a bit with VRA, in that there is a strong undercurrent of anti-semitism in Norway and anti-semitic views are fairly widespread.

The trouble is that we simply cannot tell with any certainty just how widespread it is because even polls tend to "lie" on such a sensitive subject. I've never been to Norway, nor have I seen any research on anti-Semitic attitudes in that country, but I do agree with you that, especially in the past, there was a pretty strong anti-Semitic attitude amongst many there. I am much more familiar with Sweden, and even though there certainly is some anti-Semitism to be found there, nevertheless it is at least not that obtrusive, especially today.

I guess there may be also a question as to how much is "widespread"? Are we talking about a majority? a large minority? a fairly small minority?

So, I'm not certain we actually disagree here. Yes, it's there. Yes, it has old roots. But in the modern day Norway has developed a much more tolerance than in the past from what I understand.

Why is everybody in Europe against Israel? Have they forgotten what Hitler did to the Jews? I thought the Scandianvians were more liberal. I guess I was wrong.

There's a variety of reasons why this is the case. In some cases, no doubt it does reflect some anti-Semitism, not only against Jews but Muslems as well. Another factor is the position of many of the more liberal Protestant churches that have taken positions that the Palestinians are an oppressed people and this is mostly Israel's fault in their opinion. Another is because of the influx of Middle Easterners who have emigrated to the Scandinavian countries and have some political influence. Another is the "cheering for the underdog" effect whereas the Palestinians are the "David" and the Israelis are the "Goliath". Another is what they believe to be an "overreaction" by Israeli forces in response to attacks by Palestinian "freedom fighters". Etc., Etc.

I have been to Norway, both as a child and as an adult. (The place is absolutely gorgeous and worth a trip if you can swing it)

On of my clearest memories as a child was our visit to Stavanger. We registered at a little hotel where the people at the front desk did not speak English, but did speak German. My father was registering us when the manager came into the lobby and heard us kids speaking in English and realized we were Americans and not Germans. This made everyone on staff a lot happier and led to a rather long (or at least it seemed long to me) discussion between my father and the manager on why my father spoke such good German (WWII) and how Germans still were not particularly welcome in Norway, so we should try to speak English first - everywhere. Since it was dinner time the manager insisted we all go to the hotel's smorgasbord The manager also insisted on taking us kids around the buffet so that we would be sure to know what everything was and more importantly sample the local specialties (you have to like a place where they have all you can eat caviar, smoked salmon, and other smoked and pickled fishes). We came to one dish and he told us what it was, and either I or my brother or sisters said we can't eat that. When he asked why, we told him it wasn't kosher. Then he whispered to us, that while we in Norway we should try not to mention that we were Jewish as there were still a lot of people who didn't like Jewish people, just like there were a lot of people who didn't like Germans. I hope things have changed. I can't be sure since when I have gone back I still didn't tell anyone I was Jewish.